1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a printing system adapted to be able to successively process a plurality of jobs by a printing apparatus, a printing apparatus, and a job control method.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, a POD (Print On Demand) printing system using an electrophotographic or inkjet printing apparatus has been proposed (see, e.g., patent reference 1: Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-310746, and patent reference 2: Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-310747).
In a printing system using a general digital multifunctional peripheral, jobs for which the user designates printout are temporarily accumulated in the print queue, and printed out in the job acceptance order. In the POD environment, the number of print sheets is larger than in the office environment, and a plurality of jobs are accumulated in the print queue. It is necessary to perform job handling suited to the POD environment in order to output jobs without decreasing productivity or simplify the operator operation as much as possible.
When the operator suspends a job in order to check the finish of a print job being output in the environment where a plurality of jobs are accumulated, all subsequent print jobs stand by, decreasing printout productivity.
When the operator suspends a specific job in order to check the remaining number of sheets of a type used by the specific print job, other print jobs designated to use the same type of sheets must also stop. In this case, the user must designate other print jobs one by one, impairing operability.